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Dec 13, 2010

Expect A House Social Security Subcommittee Hearing On This Next Year

From the Boston Globe:
Her toddler was adorable and rambunctious, but his vocabulary was limited to “Mommy’’ and “that,’’ while other children his age knew dozens of words. When little Alfonso tried a full sentence it came out in a swirl of sounds, often followed by a major league tantrum when he realized he was not understood. And so his mother, Roxanne Roman, was not surprised when the 18-month-old was diagnosed by a specialist with speech delay.

It came as a shock, however, when she learned from relatives that Alfonso’s problem might qualify him for thousands of dollars in yearly disability payments through the federal Supplemental Security Income program. ...

Within three months, the boy’s application was approved. Alfonso receives $700 in monthly cash benefits, plus free government-paid medical coverage. Roman said her relatives told her she can pretty much count on the disability checks for Alfonso, now 5, to keep arriving in the mailbox for the rest of his childhood.

“They don’t ask many questions about the child once you’re approved,’’ Roman said. ...

Driving much of that growth is the twelvefold spike since 1997 of children approved based on a primary diagnosis of delayed speech, a sometimes persistent but more often short-lived affliction that starts in toddlerhood. ...

Government data show that Social Security officials have, over the past decade, fallen far short when it comes to conducting the regular case reviews required by statute. A typical SSI disability case is supposed to get a full medical review every three years, but from 2000 to 2008 the agency examined, on average, only 10 percent of the children on SSI. ...

Many early childhood specialists were stunned to learn that speech delay had become such a popular gateway for children’s SSI benefits and suggested that that may be because it is the easiest-to-measure impairment among preschoolers. ...

At a Social Security Administration waiting room in Lawrence one day this summer, the mother of a 9-year-old girl said her daughter was approved quickly for SSI payments as a toddler with speech delay and has never had a full review of her disability status. ...

When asked if she thinks her daughter is still severely disabled with her speech, Tina replied hesitantly, “No.’’ ...

“I know she’s not severely disabled anymore,’’ the mother said. “It’s an interesting thing, really, that she does still qualify. She gets better and better.’’ ...

Officials said they recognize that the lack of disability reviews is a major problem, one they tie to a shortage of staff and funds....

he Western Massachusetts city of Holyoke, one of the poorest in the state, provides an extraordinary window into how the SSI disability program works for some of the youngest children, for better and for worse.

Here, 1 of every 5 children living in poverty receives SSI disability benefits. And of the 939 children who qualified last year, 699, or 74 percent, were approved for behavioral, learning, or developmental delays, data show — the highest percentage among all ZIP codes in Massachusetts. One of three of those on SSI was approved after a diagnosis of speech delay, according to federal data obtained by the Globe through a public records request. ...

Expect the House Social Security Subcommittee to hold a hearing on this next year. Expect pressure on Social Security to approve fewer of these kids and to review more of their cases once they go on benefits. Expect Social Security to cut back on service in other ways in order to free up the money for these reviews and for the appeals from denials.

9 comments:

  1. Rep. Bloviate, Rep. Cutbenefits, Rep. Donothing and Rep Dontcare will huff and puff about this issue and try to crucify the COSS and the agency. Reporter Knowsnothing and TV new analyst Caresless will rant and rave about this "assault" on the US taxpayer. After the headlines go away SSA will be forced, as you rightly put it, to "cut back serivce in other ways" to conduct reviews of theses cases. In a couple of years Bloviate, Cutbenefits, Donothing, Dontcare, Knowsnothing and Caresless will be screeching about the heartless bureaucrats cutting of the benefits of helpless children. Been there, done that, outgrew the T-shirt.

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  2. What ever sells newspapers....

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  3. Children are the responsibility of the parent. Disability benefits should be for people who have difficulty with sga employment.
    Child disability payments should be eliminated and only health insurance should be available.

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  4. Agree with A3. Children aren't breadwinners and disability benefits are supposed to replace income due to the inability of the worker to work. There's a lot of fraud in the childhood disability programs and this could easily be eliminated, with the preservation of Medicaid eligibility to assist with the higher medical expenses disabled kids incur. Health care, si. Cash, no.

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  5. I could make a lot of money representing children with these behavioral disorders, or "autism spectrum" diagnoses, but I just won't take the cases. I do represent children with severe physical problems who have been denied. I don't see much if any "fraud" with children's cases, it's just standards that are too loose.

    Picture three families in Massachusetts-- single parent mothers each with three kids, all on AFDC. In one of the families, one of the kids has a "behavioral disorder" and gets SSI. Mom gets an extra $600 per month. Another Mom has two kids on SSI for the same reasons and gets an extra $1200 SSI in addition to the AFDC. The third Mom just gets her AFDC. From the outside, there doesn't seem to be any difference in any of the kids. How can you justify this program?

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  6. When I was a CR, whenever we took SSI kids' claims, and there were other kids in the same family who were on SSI, the case was flagged by DDS for further scrutiny. There have been cases (no, by no means widespread) of fraud in these types of claims. Quite often they could be traced to "rubber stamping" slow kids with fake diagnoses of ADHD, bipolar disorders, and the like. I do know of several cases which were prosecuted for welfare fraud.

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  7. The Regulations should be changed so that an ALJ could time limit benefits. In cases with a toddler with a speech delay (or a 30 year old with a poorly healing fracture from an MVA) where medical improvement is likely, the ALJ should be allowed to award benefits for a future period of up to 3 years. It would help keep cases like this from languishing in the system.

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  8. "where medical improvement is likely, the ALJ should be allowed to award benefits for a future period of up to 3 years".

    Correct me if i'm wrong but that's why medical review is regulatorily provided for. No change needed.

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  9. SSI is not under the jurisdiction of the SS Subcommittee. It's under the currently-named Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee.

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